A sunny Christmas morning in Brooklyn. The house is quiet as is the block. All have flown or drove off to be with family or still slumbering in their beds dreaming of sugar plum fairies. I should be in Miami with friends right now but changed my plans. It’s OK, I need to be alone in the quiet with the cats snuggling at my feet in my own house today. After all the ups and downs of the last month leading up to this day, I’m happy just sitting in my kitchen drinking a cup of tea with the morning sun at my back.
The Underground Market is over for Maruska and I, we packed up on Sunday and got out of there. It wasn’t the big money maker for us that we expected but we went away with lessons learned and lots of new friends. The last few weeks were very frustrating for many of us for all the press and PR the market got didn’t generate many sales. Mainly I think because people fear a recession and are spending less this year on gifts. The housing debacle that is going on right now has scared people and thus they cut back on their spending. It has taken a toll on us designers and artists who are making a living at markets like this. Overall, many of us at the Underground made the money we expected to make which took a toll on our psyches as well as our pocketbooks. But we came to be a little family, supporting each other, laughing and crying together, uniting as a community. Tons of money was not made but good friends were made and that’s priceless.
So as I sit here in the quiet of my kitchen, shedding the noise and madness of the holiday shopping month, I think of all the new friends I got this Christmas season and that makes me happy. Maruska, Tommy Tee, Jen and PJ, Ryan, Monkey, Edgar and Zach, Jamie, Shy, Maya, Sarah and Mark, Chris, David the T-Shirt guy, Denitza and Elizaveta--the Bulgarian sisters, Teresa, Colin, Angela, Jonathan, Vinny, Phil and Roberta, and Chane. Thanks guys for a great time. Here’s to more good times and success in 2008!
